Managing A Freshman Pitching Staff


Managing a pitching staff is going to be the most difficult thing that any manager does on a given day. For High School Baseball this can be even more difficult to think about and manage. As pitchers progress to higher levels in baseball they are asked to specialize at one particular job. You will not get many pitchers who are also playing the field come freshman year of college.

High School baseball brings any difficult and specialized problems for managers to deal with. For the most part pitchers in high school can be some of the best athletes on the team. These players can often times play some of the most valuable positions on the field. The problem is exacerbated when you consider pitch counts, multiple games in a week, and a small and relatively ineffective lower end of the "staff".


I have noticed that pitchers do struggle to go deep into games making this problem even worse for the pitching staff. To manage an effective staff I would suggest that you need at least 8 pitchers who can pitch for your team. I ran into problems toward the middle to later part of this season with the staff. I was able to keep the pitch counts around 50-60 for the most part this season. As the season continued you can tell that fatigue began to set in on some of the pitchers and they began to either loss velocity or struggle to locate the zone. With a couple of injuries that brought the number of pitchers who can pitch on a given day all the way to 4-5. After factoring in other pitchers who had thrown the biggest struggle has to be having 1-2 pitchers for any given day without pushing the staff to the point of over exhaustion.

Another probelm that I have found stems from not having enough players to give those pitchers who have thrown 60 pitches the day before adequate rest when dealing with playing the field. Pitchers in other levels are given adequate rest from throwing and can potentially have a pitching coach to manage their throws over a given period of time.

Overall managing a high school pitching staff does have its challenges but I enjoy the challenge that this brings on a daily basis. It is better to have more pitchers than struggling to find arms when injuries go occur. A more balanced approach is something I might consider in the future. Looking into how to find a bunch of pitchers who can throw strikes and get ground balls.

Who many pitchers do you think you need for any given day?
How many pitches do you think is just right for high school pitchers?
Do you think having 6-8 pitchers is a possibility for your team?

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